


i hope you feed me

by ancientdeceiver



Series: desire [1]
Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Emotional Baggage, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Human/Vampire Relationship, Light Angst, M/M, Unresolved Emotional Tension, unhealthy idealization of a person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 17:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16706668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancientdeceiver/pseuds/ancientdeceiver
Summary: It’s not like he thinks he’s doomed to spend all eternity by himself, not like Sasha, anyway.





	i hope you feed me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghosthunter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosthunter/gifts).



> well, well, well why don’t we look at what we have here: it’s the birthday fic i promised to write julie four months ago. sorry this took so long to get here but what originally was supposed to be a “quick” vampire fic started growing feelings and a plot and everything in between and it just would not stop and i didn’t really know _how_ to stop it. anyway i am really proud of this fic bc it’s the one single fic i have worked on for the longest period of time AND it’s also the longest fic (in terms of word count) that i’ve ever written.
> 
> this is my baby, my pride and joy. i hope you like it. happy (way) belated birthday julie <3
> 
> also huge thank u to jarka for the beta. i never beta anything bc well, who knows why, really, but this was important that i did. so thank u so much again jarka for the beta! all other mistakes are my own.
> 
> title from _desire_ by meg myers
> 
> enjoy :)

It’s not like he thinks he’s doomed to spend all eternity by himself, not like Sasha, anyway. Evgeny thinks it’s just a matter of time before the perfect pair human comes along and allows him to become the ultimate version of himself, the best he’s ever been in his six hundred years of existence, but sometimes it does get hard; especially when he sees everyone else around him finding a human that trusts them enough to let them drink their blood, that trusts them that close to their neck, giving them full access to their life. It gets especially hard when he can’t even go to a party without seeing everyone with their face in someone else’s neck, and has to be content with having one of Sasha’s shitty blood-vodka cocktails, which are always more vodka than blood. but he’s not really complaining. 

Tonight, Evgeny’s just standing by, leaning against Sasha’s refrigerator, watching him make drinks for everyone. He’s quick about everything he does - sets down cups faster than the blink of an eye, pours in vodka, and cranberry juice, and blood, and all sorts of drinks even faster than that. The way Sasha’s muscles move against the tight white v-neck he’s wearing tonight turns Evgeny on a little bit, and if Evgeny was a bit more stupid, if he didn’t know that two vampires should never hook up, he would ask Sasha to fuck him. Instead, he just stares at Sasha’s back, memorizes every bump and curve, stores it so that he can maybe jerk off to it later. Evgeny would feel really bad about jerking off to an image of Sasha if Sasha hadn’t admitted to doing the same to an image of Evgeny, and would feel even worse about it if they hadn’t known each other for over five hundred years.

Sasha sees the blonde haired human first, but Evgeny feels him first. Well, actually, he feels the man next to him first - the one with the dark hair - just a fraction of a second before he feels the blonde man. 

Andre trails behind them just a few moments after they come into the kitchen. 

“You guys are assholes,” Andre says, and he sounds out of breath, like he’d been running around looking for the two of them. The two laugh, loud and open like they don’t have a care in the world. And Sasha, well, Sasha’s eyes are glued to the blonde man’s neck. 

“It’s not like you didn’t deserve it,” Evgeny comments, taking a sip of his shitty blood-vodka drink. It makes Sasha and both men laugh, but especially the dark haired man. “You cling on everyone like, what are those grey animals called? The Australian ones?”

“Koalas?” the dark haired man replies, and Evgeny nods. 

“Yeah, yeah, Jojo. Just watch yourself, don’t want to accidentally get your dick caught in your zipper again,” Andre laughs. 

“That was your fault to begin with, so don’t even start,” the blonde haired man replies, which makes everyone turn to look at him, only he doesn’t look back at everyone else. Instead, he’s in this weird staring contest with Sasha. “I’m Nicklas, by the way, but you can call me Nicke.”

And again, he doesn’t look at anyone else but Sasha. 

Sasha drops everything he’s doing and walks closer to Nicke, leans down and sniffs at Nicke’s readily available neck. 

“My room’s just upstairs, quiet, no one will bother us,” Sasha murmurs, clearly going for a whisper, but just like everything else about him, it’s too loud and everyone there in the kitchen hears him. 

That doesn’t seem to deter Nicke, however, because he just nods and takes Sasha’s hand and leads them upstairs, leaving Evgeny alone with Andre and Jojo. 

“Is, uh, is Djoos here?” Andre asks, looking a little more relaxed, more like himself now. “I need to talk to him again.”

“God, you two haven’t paired yet? What’s it been, like, six months? You’re both in love with each other and he’s been letting you drink out of him for as long. Come on, just do it,” Jojo says, and maybe, just maybe, it’s then that Evgeny starts believing in soulmates because he completely read Evgeny’s mind. 

“I don’t want to scare him off. Last time, it didn’t go so well for him,” Andre says, sadly. “I just don’t want to rush him.”

“You guys know each other for like five years now,” Evgeny interjects. “There’s no rushing anything. Just do it. He likes you drinking out of him as much as you like doing it. Go. Get your man and get out of poor Jojo’s hair.”

Andre just rolls his eyes, but goes out through the door that leads to the backyard, where everyone is probably dancing or drinking out of someone.

“Thanks, but I didn’t need your help, you know,” Jojo says, smirking. 

Evgeny takes a sip of his blood-vodka cocktail and nods, then says, “Well yeah, but he can be very annoying and I didn’t want you to deal with that.”

Jojo just laughs, but then:

“Trust me, it’s worse when he’s speaking in Swedish.”

“Because he knows more words in Swedish than English?”

Jojo nods. 

“Exactly.”

\/\/\/

Evgeny spends the rest of the night next to Jojo, or rather, the other way around. Because, after all, this is Sasha’s party and Jojo is just Andre’s guest, a guest who’s never been to Sasha’s house before. So, because Evgeny is a nice and polite young man, he spends his night showing Jojo around Sasha’s house. And it’s totally not because he kinda, maybe wants to hear Jojo laugh all night. Not that he likes Jojo’s laugh, or anything, no. It’s not like that at all. 

Ok, maybe just a little. 

There’s just something about Jojo’s laugh - all deep, and kind of like a dad’s laugh - that has Evgeny all strung up, strung up higher than he’s ever been, even after drinking the best blood he’s ever had, which he thinks is probably nothing in taste compared to what Jojo’s blood might taste like. God, he shouldn’t even be thinking about that right now, not when he barely knows Jojo, not when they’re so close together.

He should be polite, and at least ask if Jojo is already letting someone else drink out of him - which, Evgeny’s pretty sure he’s not. No normal human smells that fresh and still has someone drinking out of them. 

But, he should still be polite and ask, right? 

Evgeny doesn’t know how involved Jojo is with the vampire scene. Maybe he doesn’t know much about vampires, possibly doesn’t know that vampires can smell each other on a human. But, that’s probably not the case, not with a vampire friend as talkative and eager to share every single detail of his life as Andre.

But still. The least he can do is ask. 

Right?

\/\/\/

Evgeny doesn’t end up asking Jojo anything that night. 

Jojo goes home right before the crack of dawn - Andre goes home with Djoos, and it seems like Nicke stays with Sasha, judging by the sounds coming from his room. 

Sure is fucking quiet, Sasha. 

“The next party you come to here, in this house, is mine, ok?” Evgeny asks, phrasing it as, what he hopes comes across as a clear invitation. “Turning six hundred and five.”

Jojo raises an eyebrow.

“Six hundred and five?” he asks, and Evgeny gets a feeling Jojo is just fucking with him. “Wow, you’re kind of old to still have birthday parties, don’t you think?”

“So I’ll see you here?” Evgeny retorts, not backing down at all. 

“I’ll be here. Just tell Andre to let me know when it is.”

With that, he smiles and walks out of the house. 

Evgeny can’t wait until it’s his birthday. That’s a feeling he hasn’t felt in two hundred years.

\/\/\/

Contrary to popular belief, Evgeny has paired in the past, but he hasn’t been so in three hundred and twenty years. Not since his old pair human decided to abandon him and leave him to wither away.

It’s a good thing Sasha had found him when he did, introduced him to several partners over the centuries. He can get by with just a drink every couple of weeks, and if he’s really stretching it, he could get by with one drink every three weeks. But he’s not willing to put himself through that, not voluntarily at least. Not with how awful he’d felt when it happened last time. 

Now he feels like he might have the opportunity to pair again, to feed more regularly and begin to feel like himself again. That’s if Jojo isn’t already feeding someone else; humans can only take so much, and Evgeny’s not willing to put Jojo through that, not when they’ve just met.

\/\/\/

Evgeny takes a really long time to get ready for his party, much longer than usual. After all, a vampire only turns six hundred and five once during their life, and he doesn’t want to look gross while doing it. It also really helps that Jojo is going to be there, and Evgeny wants to make a good impression on him again. Not that he knows for sure if he’d made a good impression in the first place, but he’s confident he did. 

At least, he’s pretty fucking sure considering Jojo wouldn’t stop laughing at his jokes. Or maybe he was just laughing at the image of Evgeny almost tripping over someone’s leg. Could be either one, but still, Evgeny wants to look good for him.

There’s a knock on his bedroom door right as he’s getting ready. 

“For fuck’s sake Sasha, you own this house, I told you that you can just come in whenever,” Evgeny grumbles, in Russian, as he goes to open the door. Instead of finding Sasha, however, Nicke is at his door. “Oh.”

“Sasha told me to come tell you that we’re going out for a bit to get some things and that you’ll be receiving guests on your own for a bit,” Nicke says, serious, more so than he’d been last time Evgeny saw him. 

“Don’t let him take you to the blood shop, he spends literal hours in there,” he says.

Nicke cracks what Evgeny thinks is his version of a friendly smile and nods. He walks away soon after and heads back downstairs to where Sasha is probably waiting for him.

 

\/\/\/

Andre shows up last. Well, more like a weird combination of him and Djoos - they can’t keep their hands or their mouths off each other, so they’re just a twisted mess of limbs - with Jojo trailing behind them, looking exasperated and like he needs maybe five strong drinks. Evgeny’s best guess is that they made him drive here and they probably made out in the back seat. 

“Need a drink?” Evgeny asks him right after they come in, and Andre and Djoos take up residence on Sasha’s ugly red couch. He nods in the direction of the kitchen, where this time, Nicke is preparing the drinks. Or at least, looks like he’s supposed to be doing so, but instead has his hands on two cups and is having a weird conversation about salt with Sasha. 

Evgeny kinda bumps Nicke with his hip, and thankfully, Nicke goes easy and just crosses his arms and looks at Sasha. He walks over to the fridge and takes out a container of blood, for himself. Then he takes the two cups and pours one halfway with blood, tops it off with vodka and some lime. He pours straight up vodka and lime juice for Jojo. 

“Come on, let’s go outside,” Evgeny suggests, grabs the cups, nods to his left. “Pretty sure Andre and Djoos are about to start fucking on the couch soon, and I don’t want to hear that.”

“Trust me, I heard enough of Andre asking Djoos to look him in the eyes all out of breath, and honestly? That’s enough to last me a lifetime,” Jojo says, and follows Evgeny outside. 

Everyone is either dancing on the makeshift dance floor, which is just a patch of grass under some lights Sasha set up last year, or they’re dipping their toes in the pool. Evgeny doesn’t want to do either, so he guides Jojo to his favorite spot in the whole backyard - a place against the fence that overlooks the whole thing, and where he set up a swing early this year. He hands Jojo his drink, then takes a sip of his own. 

“So, six hundred and five, huh?” Jojo starts, he takes another sip and sighs. “Ever been paired?”

Evgeny just nods, then replies:

“Yeah, but it didn’t work out so well,” he says, looking down at his cup; it’s half empty now. “He just abandoned me and I was too sad to do anything so I stayed home and didn’t call anyone. Sasha found me and I’ve lived with him since: three hundred twenty years now. I guess the possibility of eternity seemed too much for my pair.”

“That would be overwhelming for anyone, I think,” Jojo says, and Evgeny’s stomach sinks. “But I like the possibility of spending the rest of time with someone. Like, imagine getting to wake up to your favorite person every day, and that never ends. Wish that was me.”

“If you look close enough, someone is maybe willing to make you their eternal pair.”

That seems to catch Jojo’s attention. He looks up and looks straight into Evgeny’s eyes. 

“Yeah, maybe.”

\/\/\/

They sit on the swing for a while, just watching everyone come and go as they please. Everything goes quiet for a little, just the low rumble of conversations going on at the same time. Until Sasha puts on his dance playlist, which is weird in itself because there are slow songs, and upbeat songs, all from different centuries. Evgeny wonders how he got a song from 1587 on his phone. 

But then: Evgeny’s favorite song starts to play, something about wasted space or something. It’s slow but just enough that it’s still danceable.

“You like to dance?” Evgeny asks, taking Jojo’s now empty cup from him and setting it down on the ground. He’ll get it later. And if he doesn’t, there’s always tomorrow when he and Sasha clean up the mess. 

“Uh, I’m not that good at it,” Jojo says, but stands up when Evgeny does so too. 

“Doesn’t matter, half these people dance like a wet noodle but they still dance, so.”

Evgeny just shrugs, and he’s about to give up when Jojo pats his chest. 

“Ok, fine. You convinced me, but only because I love the way you say noodle. Say it again, please.”

“Noodle.”

Jojo laughs, loud and carefree. Evgeny just watches him - well, more like watches his neck and the way his adam’s apple moves with his laughter - as he pulls them to the makeshift dance floor. The song now turns to a slow love ballad, slow enough that most of the people get closer together, touching their foreheads. Evgeny doesn’t think that him and Jojo are at that stage yet, not that they’re at any stage, so he places Jojo’s hands on his shoulders, then puts his own hands at Jojo’s waist.

They’re still a little too far away for Evgeny’s liking, but he’s not going to say anything about it, doesn’t want to make Jojo uncomfortable. But it’s like Jojo reads his mind because he gets closer to Evgeny, wraps his arms around his neck, and starts swaying along with him.

 

Jojo smiles at Evgeny before he presses close to him, the top half of his ear touching the top half of Evgeny’s, and everything just feels right then.

(And again, Evgeny doesn’t believe in soulmates, but fuck, Jojo really makes him believe in them now.)

\/\/\/

Evgeny wakes up with the worst headache he’s had since he was in college for the fourth time, back in 1985. He doesn’t even remember how he’d gotten back in his room; he got way too drunk on the blood-vodka cocktails that Sasha kept giving him all night, even after Evgeny said he’d had enough.

(He hadn’t. He took several more drinks from Sasha.)

So, he wakes up on his bed, still in his jeans and t-shirt from last night, one shoe on and the other on his dresser. He scrubs his face, then shakes his foot so hard so his other shoe comes off. He groans then: his bed feels so comfortable and nice, he really doesn’t want to get up, but his mouth feels like absolute death, and he’s pretty sure his head is going to explode pretty soon if he doesn’t have some ibuprofen, or at least some food first. 

He hears movement in the kitchen, which probably means that Sasha is making breakfast. He doesn’t know if Nicke had stayed the night, but the way things are progressing with them, Nicke probably did. 

Evgeny gets up and almost trips on his shoe, then over another, then another one. He shakes his head, but goes in the bathroom, mentally thanks Sasha for giving him one of the two rooms with an adjacent bathroom. The second he turns on the light he hears a slight what the fuck are you doing before he figures out where it’s coming from.

The fucking bathtub.

“Jojo, what the fuck?” Evgeny says, and laughs a little, but decides laughing isn’t a good idea when his head hurts much worse. Jojo’s in the bathtub, still in his t-shirt and jeans from last night too. One of his pant legs is rolled all the way up to halfway up his thigh, and one sock is off, sitting across the toilet seat. “How the hell did you get here?”

“Fuck, I would be in my bed already if I knew why I was here,” Jojo says, trying but failing to get up. “Help me out.”

He doesn’t have to be told twice. He grabs both of Jojo’s hands and pulls him up, possibly, no, definitely overestimating the strength it would take to safely pull Jojo up. Because of this, Jojo’s weight makes them fall on top of the toilet seat, Jojo on top of Evgeny. The force of the fall makes them both groan.

“You are the worst, I ask for help and you give me a bigger headache,” Jojo says, but it’s light so Evgeny takes no offense to it. 

“It’s really not my fault I’m so strong,” Evgeny says, trying to flex but he’s too busy holding onto Jojo. “Also, it’s all your fault for being in the bathtub. Why are you in the bathtub anyway?”

“I told you, if I knew, I would be in my bed by now.”

It’s quiet for a while before Evgeny tells Jojo he has to go pee. Jojo just nods, doesn’t even bother to roll down his pant leg before he’s out the door, possibly heading downstairs to search for some breakfast.

\/\/\/

When Evgeny finally comes down, Sasha, Nicke, and Jojo are just sitting down to eat. Sasha looks infuriatingly refreshed for someone who probably drank way more than Evgeny did, and Nicke has a fresh bite mark on the left side of his neck, which definitely explains why Sasha looks so good at this hour of the day. Jojo, on the other hand, looks like he needs at least a couple more hours of sleep; he’s still missing a sock and his pant leg is still rolled up halfway up his thigh.

Evgeny goes to the stove and serves himself whatever Sasha made, which turns out to be scrambled eggs with sausage and some toast. He sits next to Jojo and starts eating. The food is good, but Evgeny is still what he is. He needs blood, and he needs it soon.

“Can’t feed off Djoos anymore, he’s probably paired with Andre now. I’m going to need someone new pretty soon,” Evgeny says, in Russian, because this is a private matter, after all.

“I’ll find someone for you soon,” is all Sasha says before he goes back to his food and it goes silent again. 

\/\/\/

True to his word, Sasha finds someone new for Evgeny to feed from the very next day, a very beautiful someone if he’s honest. Her name is Natalya, and she’s Russian just like them, which is helpful; leave it to Sasha to be thoughtful as fuck like that. Her hair is almost as golden as Nicke’s, but her smile is sharp, and very white, which is a little intimidating but Evgeny likes that. She’s funny, quicker to a joke than he is. 

They’re going to be good together, Evgeny can feel it.

\/\/\/

As it turns out, Evgeny is right. Natalya and him are good together: he’s looking to pair - she knows that because he tells her from the first time she feeds him - she’s not, so she only shows up when Evgeny’s running low. That doesn’t mean they don’t become friends right away, doesn’t mean they don’t hook up every once in a while, because why not, they both make each other feel good and there aren’t any strings attached.

Evgeny trusts her, she’s never given him a reason not to.

They’re laying in bed together after she’s fed him. His head is on her chest, and she’s carding her fingers through his hair and it feels good, feels like someone really cares about him.

“Sometimes I feel like I’m never going to find my pair,” Evgeny says as he’s playing with a loose string on Natalya’s shirt. “I mean, there’s definitely a reason why Anatoly left me. I just wish I knew what it was.”

“What brings up Anatoly again, sweetheart, hmm?” Natalya asks with her sweet voice that makes Evgeny feel like he’s on a cloud of cotton candy.

Evgeny just shrugs. 

“I don’t know. I guess it’s because the anniversary of him leaving me is coming up, and I still think about him a lot.”

“Sweetheart, I know it still hurts a lot, but Anatoly wasn’t worth shit then, and he sure as hell isn’t worth shit now. I know that you guys were paired for, what, two hundred years? But he’s not worth it anymore. He’s a piece of shit.”

She’s getting angry, Evgeny can tell, which makes him smile a little. He’s not really used to having anyone else be angry about Anatoly besides Sasha. Oh, Sasha had gone absolutely nuts. He’d gotten so angry he’d smashed a lot of things, tried to go out and tried to hunt Anatoly down to kill him with his bare hands. Hell, he’d even cried about it when Evgeny did.

“I know.”

“We need to go out together,” she says, sounding like she’s made up her mind and there’s no room for Evgeny to argue. “We’re going to go to a club and possibly finding you a potential pair.”

“I already found someone I want to pair with, but I’m not so sure he wants to pair with me. I’m not sure how ready he is to spend eternity with me, I mean. We did only meet like a week ago.”

“Is he paired with anyone else?”

“I don’t think so, he smells too fresh.”

Natalya makes a thoughtful noise then stays quiet for a while.

“Well, then, you need to make your move soon because a fresh human doesn’t last forever.”

\/\/\/

Over the centuries, parties to celebrate a vampire and human that have recently paired have changed drastically. When Evgeny was born, pair parties were a really public event, everyone and their grandmother was invited. But this whole making pair parties private again is a recent development, in vampire terms anyway, only becoming a thing again two hundred or so years ago. Evgeny prefers private pair parties more, because he actually gets to congratulate the recent pair instead of wandering at a stranger’s house all night, without getting to meet them at all.

So, when Sasha and Nicke finally pair, they decide to throw a private pair party. Nicke insists on it. He’s more private and reserved when he’s not absolutely hammered, so it makes sense that the pair party is a private one, reserved for only their closest friends.

When Nicke said that the gathering was going to be intimate, he didn’t expect it to be this intimate - only ten people total are invited. Carly and TJ are back home from their Australian vacation just in time to make it to the party. Eller and Michal never leave D.C. in the first place, only ever leave to go visit Eller’s parents in Denmark once or twice a year, so they’re basically at the party as soon as Sasha makes the call. Philipp and Braden come back from Spain the morning of the party, so they come straight from the airport. Ever since Djoos and Andre start hooking up, they don’t leave Andre’s apartment very often. Jojo is Nicke’s best friend, from what Evgeny can see, so of course he’s going to be there. 

And Evgeny, well, duh, of course he’s going to be there, he lives in Sasha’s spare bedroom.

The celebration turns out to be a really fancy, but laid-back dinner, just friends among friends talking and catching up, drinking wine after they’re done with their food. It’s really good, and it makes Evgeny feel like he’s floating.

“They’re so cute, yeah?” Jojo comments, taking a sip of what Evgeny thinks is his third cup of wine. “TJ and John. Why are they called all american heroes though? Did I miss something?”

Evgeny nods, “Four hundred years ago, TJ and Carly saved an old dog from being run over by Sasha. The old dog was crossing the street and Sasha just turn so TJ throw sandal on Sasha’s windshield so Sasha brakes hard, and dog doesn’t die. John helps the old dog cross the street then. Nickname just stuck, I guess.”

“Oh. Wait, are you for real? Are you joking me?”

Evgeny doesn’t know how another person can read his mind and not be paired to him yet. Still, he keeps his face as serious as he can, but it doesn’t last too long because Jojo makes the most adorable confused face ever, that just makes Evgeny break out into loud laughter.

“You are such a jerk, you know,” Jojo says, but he’s smiling, his cheeks a faint red from the wine possibly. “Wow. I’m not going to believe anything you say ever again.”

“I don’t know about that, I can convince many people.”

“We’ll see about that.”

\/\/\/

Sasha is in Sweden with Nicke, visiting Nicke’s parents as is customary with humans after their pair with a vampire, so that leaves Evgeny all alone in Sasha’s insanely huge house. It feels, rightfully so, way more empty than Evgeny has ever felt it be without Sasha to fill up the space with his innate loudness. And no Sasha means no one else to help him distract himself from the stupid Anatoly anniversary. 

He thinks about calling Natalya to come hang out with him, goes as far as reaching for his phone on the coffee table in the living room, but just then, someone knocks on the front door. Evgeny really doesn’t have a clue who it could be, considering all his friends are either on vacation or fixing problems of their own. So he gets up and opens the door.

It’s Jojo.

Now, Evgeny is not going to deny that he’s been attracted to Jojo from the moment they met, but there’s just something about Jojo today that’s making Evgeny go a little wild, that’s making him just want to throw Jojo on the couch and bite his neck. Maybe it’s how soft and casual he looks, with a plain white t-shirt and black basketball shorts.

“Sasha called and asked me to come check up on you,” Jojo says, after a while. 

Evgeny briefly wonders how much Sasha told him.

“Come in,” he says instead. “Everyone else is on vacation or solving their own problems, and I don’t like to do much alone, so I just stay home until Sasha comes back.”

“We’re friends now too, you can call me to just hang out, you know, so you don’t have to be by yourself.”

“I don’t have your number.”

“Well,” Jojo says, and points at the coffee table. “Get your phone so we can trade numbers.”

Evgeny does what he’s told right away. He hands Jojo his phone, and Jojo does too. Right as Jojo is inputting his number on Evgeny’s phone, it starts ringing.

“Unknown number,” Jojo says, a bit awkwardly, but then shows the screen to Evgeny. And it’s like Evgeny’s entire world comes crashing back down. All three hundred and twenty years of living with Sasha just blow away in the wind. That number, that fucking number he’d remember even if everything else was wiped from his memory. “Are you ok?”

Evgeny swallows hard, but nods. He takes the phone from Jojo and just holds it in his hands. The phone stops ringing then but Evgeny’s relief only lasts seconds, because it starts ringing again, with the same fucking number. Evgeny excuses himself and walks to the kitchen.

“Hello,” he answers, in Old Russian like the last time he spoke to Anatoly. “Who is this?”

“It’s me, Anatoly, remember me?” he asks - also in Old Russian - and, fuck, how could Evgeny forget him. “I wasn’t sure if this was still your phone number, I was hoping it was. Anyway, I’m calling to invite you to my pair party.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Evgeny asks. “You, you’re really doing this?”

“Zhenya, come on.”

“You don’t get to call me that now, not after what you did. Are you fucking serious? This is a fucking joke, isn’t it? You’re fucked up, fucking deluded if you think I’m going to go. What the fuck.”

“Come on, Zhenya-”

“I said don’t fucking call me that,” Evgeny interrupts him. He hopes his voice isn’t too loud, he doesn’t want Jojo to think anything is wrong. “Call me that again, and I swear to God I’m hanging up on you and this time, this time I swear you will never hear from me again.”

“Ok, ok, Evgeny,” Anatoly says. “I would really appreciate it if you would come to my pair party. I know I meant a lot to you, and if I still do, please come.”

Half of Evgeny is screaming at him not to go, he’s just going to see how happy Anatoly is now, and it’s going to hurt; he’s going to see how Anatoly really didn’t give a fuck when he abandoned Evgeny, and just moved on like nothing ever happened. The other half, however, is yelling even louder for him to go, to show Anatoly how good he is now, how much happier he is after things ended with them.

Of course, the latter half wins. 

“I’m only going because I’m over you,” Evgeny says, trying his best to keep calm. “But I’m bringing my pair with me.”

“That’s fine,” Anatoly says, and the fucker sounds fucking happy about it, which Evgeny really fucking hates. “When did you pair again?”

“Three hundred twenty years ago.”

“Oh,” he says, then goes quiet for a while. “Well, I’ll see you here? I’ll mail you the invite.”

And with that, he hangs up.

What in the world did Evgeny just agree to? He doesn’t even have a fucking pair, much less someone he knows enough to be able to pass off as his pair. Maybe Natalya will go with him, she’s the only other person besides Sasha that knows the whole Anatoly situation. But, then he remembers how angry she’d gotten when he told her about him; there’s no doubt in Evgeny’s mind that she’d punch him in the face. Really, Evgeny doesn’t want to get Natalya into any trouble. 

Still, he has to find someone, and he’s got to do it quick.

He sighs and pockets his phone, walks back out into the living room.

“Sorry about that,” he says, still stressed about the call. “You wanna go to see a movie? I need to get out of this stupid house.”

Jojo looks at him for a second, like he’s trying to figure out what that call was about, like he wants to know what’s got Evgeny so stressed out all of the sudden. He doesn’t say anything about that, just continues looking at Evgeny the way he did before.

“Lead the way,” Jojo says. “I could follow you, or maybe you can follow me.”

“I was thinking maybe we could just take one car, you know, have to be friendly to the environment,” Evgeny says, and shrugs. Jojo just nods. “My car or yours?”

“I don’t like driving too much. Yours.”

“Who said I’m driving?” Evgeny asks, as he’s fishing his keys out of the key bowl. 

“Me.”

There’s something about the look in Jojo’s eyes that has Evgeny looking away, because if he doesn’t, he’s not going to be able to control himself and he’s going to suck Jojo dry.

“Let’s go then.”

“Let’s go.”

\/\/\/

They go see some random movie that Evgeny forgets the title of halfway in, and that has Jojo yawning every fifteen minutes. Neither of them say anything because, damn it, they payed a lot of money to see this fucking movie, and they’ll be damned if they don’t stick around until it’s over.

They’re the first ones up and out of the theater as soon as the movie is over. It’s almost light out by the end of the movie, which kinda takes Evgeny by surprise because last time he checked his phone it was only ten in the morning, vampire time. 

“Wanted to eat dinner outside but the light’s almost back again,” Evgeny says, as they’re walking back to the car. “I guess we’re eating take out. What are you in the mood for?”

“Honestly, I’ll eat anything. I’m starving,” Jojo replies. “When Nicke was single, our go-to was this small Asian fusion place by our house. I think they have take out.”

“Sounds good.”

\/\/\/

This is the first time Evgeny’s had the pleasure of being with Jojo alone, but he feels like this could be come a thing, a thing that he’d be able to look forward to the rest of time. There’s just something about Jojo that makes it so fucking easy to be around him, that draws the person in, and keeps them there. Maybe it’s the way he so easily goes along with everything, at least so far, or the way he laughs at all of Evgeny’s jokes, even if they aren’t all that funny. Maybe it’s because this reminds him of being with Anatoly when they first met, as fucked up as things may be.

They eat quietly, in the silent comfort of Sasha’s huge house. 

“I’m curious about something, you know about vampire stuff and things like that,” Jojo says, Evgeny nods. “How do you know when you’re ready to pair with a human?”

“It’s different for everybody,” Evgeny says. “For me, personally, I know right away because we have a connection as soon as we meet. For a lot of vampires, it’s not so easy, takes centuries. But I feel like feeling of wanting to pair is the same, like, warm shower. Just warm all over, comfortable. Feeling of finally pairing is so different, it takes a lot people by surprise. Pairing is like coming inside of cold store on a really hot day, I don’t know, like cooling off all stress that comes from trying to find person you spend all of time with forever. It’s really nice feeling.”

Jojo smiles, like someone just told him the greatest love story of all time. 

“Do both people feel it? Like do two people know that they want to pair with each other, or is it like dating?”

“Little bit. If two people aren’t on same page, that’s when pairing takes centuries. I know lots people say you need to communicate, but it’s actually very true. If you don’t say hey, I think we make good pair then maybe that human goes and meets someone else, and then that guy says that to them. You have to communicate.”

Jojo gets a look in his eyes, like he’s trying to decide whether or not he wants to speak again. Evgeny’s definitely had that feeling before, so he doesn’t say anything, just sits there and waits for Jojo to say something. It turns out to be a staring contest that lasts like ten minutes before either of them say anything.

“So can I tell you something?” Jojo asks, like he’s trying really hard to come up with the right words.

Evgeny nods, a sign to tell Jojo that he indeed can. But just then, Evgeny’s phone starts ringing - it’s Natalya. Again, they look at each other before Jojo waves his hand around, to tell Evgeny that he can go ahead and answer his phone. So, he does, gets up and turns around; there’s just something about people watching him speak on the phone that makes him a little shy. It turns out to be Natalya just wanting to set up a time for her to come feed him, since she’s going to be out of the country around their usual time. It’s easy to set up a new time, the day before she has to leave.

When Evgeny turns around, Jojo’s nervous expression is gone, instead replaced by a serious, almost cold look on his face. Evgeny ignores it and sits back down.

“So what did you want to say to me?” Evgeny asks. “Sounded very serious.”

Jojo just shakes his head.

“It’s nothing, really,” he says. “Uh, maybe we can talk about it tomorrow or something. My family is coming into town soon so I think I should go clean up my house a bit, yeah? It’s going to take a while because I haven’t cleaned a lot lately. See you tomorrow, ok?”

Jojo doesn’t wait for Evgeny’s reply, just gets up and almost runs out the door, trading numbers with Evgeny seemingly forgotten.

Well.

\/\/\/

Evgeny doesn’t see or hear from Jojo for a while, almost a month. Jojo doesn’t show up to any of the parties at Sasha’s house either, or even the one Andre throws for Djoos’s birthday at their apartment. Maybe his family is staying for longer than Evgeny thought, could just be catching up if they’re coming in from somewhere.

It gets to be too much when it’s officially a month since Evgeny’s heard anything from Jojo. 

Sasha’s birthday party is in full swing when Nicke goes inside, in search of more limes from what Evgeny was able to hear. Of course, Evgeny follows him inside; Nicke is Jojo’s best friend, so he might have some clue as to where the hell Jojo is, or how he’s doing, if he’s ok, or if he’s in some sort of trouble.

“Where is Jojo?” Evgeny asks, and it takes Nicke by surprise apparently, because he looks like he wasn’t expecting anyone to be following him inside. “Haven’t heard from him in a month. No call, no text, no nothing. Is he ok?”

Nicke looks around, like he’s making sure no one is listening to them, before he sighs and rubs his face.

“He’s in Sweden, with his family,” Nicke says simply. “He’s looking into moving back there because he says there’s no point in him living here anymore when he can be living the same life in Sweden.”

“Oh,” Evgeny says, because, well, that takes him by complete surprise. He didn’t know Jojo was feeling that way, maybe he should’ve done more to be a better friend to him. “Well, is he coming back soon? Not even a goodbye to friends?”

Nicke looks guiltily then.

“Well, actually, he said goodbye to all of us a month ago.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know. He said he would say bye to you once everything was finalized.”

“It’s ok,” Evgeny says, even though he’s really not. 

Maybe he hadn’t had that much of a connection with Jojo as he thought.

\/\/\/

Sasha and Nicke go out for dinner one night, and Evgeny stays in because it’s raining and he hates getting his shoes wet. He much prefers staying in, cuddling up with a blanket on the couch, and watching documentaries on how the universe works. There are times, like all his life, when he wishes there was someone else to watch these documentaries with him, someone else to cuddle because, if he’s being honest, he’s really tired of cuddling the blanket and nothing else.

He’s halfway through a documentary about black holes when Sasha and Nicke come back, laughing like the funniest thing they’d witnessed in their lives just happened. They leave the door open behind them, which is unusual because Nicke has this thing where he makes sure he closes every door he steps through. Just then, Jojo steps in, soaking wet, not looking very amused.

“You guys are so helpful,” Jojo says, a little grumpy. “It’s not like people aren’t assholes who just drive over puddles without looking to see if there are any people nearby.”

“I said watch out, you know,” Nicke says, and rolls his eyes. “Come on, let’s go upstairs and I can let you borrow some clothes.”

“Nice to see you again, Jojo,” Evgeny says from the couch. He does his best to sit up straight and look at Jojo. “Where have you been? You went ghost on me after our dinner.”

Really, Evgeny isn’t a confrontational guy, but when someone says goodbye to everyone in their friend circle except for him, that’s when there’s an exception. And he hates the way Jojo looks like he feels guilty, but Evgeny just had to say something. There’s no way he could keep quiet and pretend nothing’s wrong.

“Oh hey, Evgeny,” Jojo says, looks like he wants the Earth to swallow him whole. “Sorry, my parents’ stay took longer than I thought, sorry.”

“Oh really? Well, very good to have you back now.”

Jojo doesn’t reply verbally, instead just nods and waits for Nicke to lead him to his room, or well, the room he shares with Sasha.

He’ll have a chance to speak to Jojo later, so there’s no rush.

\/\/\/

Evgeny doesn’t know when Jojo comes back down, because he goes upstairs into his own room and just passes out on his bed; something about the rain that makes him want to crawl in bed and just sleep for a while. Maybe it’s when the rain comes down on the house, the tapping noises lullings Evgeny to sleep. He doesn’t have a very complicated dream, at least, not like the other times. He dreams that everything is almost exactly the same as what just happened, except this time, he stays in the living room, sits down on the couch and waits for Jojo to come back down. He doesn’t wait for long, he thinks. Jojo speaks, but Evgeny can’t hear him, tells him so several times, but still, Jojo keeps talking. 

It feels wrong, but it doesn’t stop, so Evgeny gives up and looks at Jojo until he’s done speaking. Evgeny’s about to speak again when he’s woken up. Sasha’s trying to knock his door down again.

“Breakfast, young one,” Sasha says, and then Evgeny can hear his footsteps get quieter and eventually fade.

From what he can hear, it’s still raining outside, which makes him smile. He stretches out and then gets up. Evgeny doesn’t want to keep Sasha waiting - he knows Sasha will probably eat his serving if he doesn’t come down quickly.

\/\/\/

Jojo is still around. So is Nicke. It seems likely that he’s going to formally move in soon, which would make sense since they already visited Nicke’s parents in Sweden. That’s as formal as it gets, right under marriage, which means Evgeny probably needs to look for a place soon. He doesn’t want to be that awkward third wheel for the rest of eternity, or at least until he finds his pair.

In all, the breakfast is nice, a little quiet but peaceful.

“Are you going to apologize to him or not?” Nicke mumbles to Jojo, in Swedish. Evgeny knows exactly what he says because he went to college five times - including twice in Sweden, which is where he met Andre - and took Swedish as his prefered language both those times. 

“Later, when you go feed Sasha so we’ll be spared of all your noises,” Jojo mumbles back, which earns him a soft kick to the ankle from Nicke. “What? It’s the truth! You’re so noisy and loud and annoying. I’ll probably talk to him outside.”

They go quiet then, just continue eating their breakfast.

Eventually, Nicke gets up and Sasha follows him, up the stairs. Evgeny wordlessly helps Jojo clean up the table, which turns into them washing the dishes together, without saying anything, or even making any eye contact.

“You want to go outside? It just turned dark out,” Jojo offers. Evgeny just nods.

There’s something so calm about watching the rain at night, feeling the cool air hit your skin, and the smell of dirt.

“I’m thinking of moving back to Sweden,” Jojo says, quiet. “There’s really no reason for me to keep living here when I could be living the same life back home.”

“What makes you say that?” Evgeny asks, hopefully concealing his hurt enough. “You have a lot of friends here. You’re just gonna leave them behind like that?”

Jojo just shrugs.

“I don’t know. I just… I’m ready to find my pair vampire already. I want that soon, and I’m not finding them here, so maybe it’s time to look somewhere else.”

“So you just run back home and not even say bye to me? I thought we were great friends, I’m even going to invite you to the pair party to his new vampire guy. This is me inviting you. No one knows about this party but you, and you just run from me. What did I do?”

Evgeny laughs a little, to let Jojo know that he’s not all that mad at him.

“The same one you told me about the night of your birthday party?” Jojo asks, confused. Evgeny nods. “Why? I mean, why me and why are you going to his pair party after what he did?”

Evgeny shrugs.

“I don’t trust Sasha not to kill him, and Natalya will punch him, create big scene. I trust you. Besides, your shoulder looks comfortable to cry on.”

“Ok,” Jojo says, and sighs. “Ok I’ll come with you.”

Honestly, Evgeny is a little surprised that Jojo agreed this quickly, but it’s not like he’s going to argue.

“Great,” Evgeny says, and smiles a little. “We leave two days from now, very early in the morning.”

\/\/\/

Evgeny doesn’t tell anyone that he and Jojo are going to Anatoly’s pair party, tells Jojo to keep it quiet as well. It’s only the morning that they’re supposed to leave that Sasha finds out. Evgeny’s down in the kitchen, looking for his favorite cup for tea, but can’t seem to find it. Eventually, Sasha comes down, probably to make breakfast. 

“You’re up really early,” Sasha says, looking Evgeny up and down; it’s rare that Evgeny’s this dressed up so early in the morning. “Where are you going? You’re wearing your traveling clothes, and your comfortable shoes.”

“Uh,” Evgeny says, he didn’t think this far ahead - there’s no way he’s telling Sasha that he’s flying all the way to Russia to see an ex that left him for dead. “Me and Jojo are taking a little vacation, we have to leave soon but I wanted some tea first.”

He turns around and keeps looking for the cup. (It’s not that Evgeny has to have tea in that cup, but more of a tradition before he travels).

“You guys paired and you didn’t fucking tell me, or anyone? What the fuck?”

“No, dumbass, we’re just going on vacation. No one’s paired yet. God, Sasha, have you seen my red and blue cup? I need to have tea from it before I pick Jojo up.”

“Jojo’s on his way here, says he doesn’t trust anyone to look after his car but my beautiful Nicke,” Sasha says, and walks behind Evgeny, then opens the cabinet above them and takes out said cup. He waves it in front of Evgeny’s face. “Is this the one you’re looking for?”

“You are a fucking godsend, you know?”

Sasha rolls his eyes and is about to say something when Nicke comes rushing down the stairs to open the door for Jojo. He looks really good, Evgeny feels it, and is about to say so when Sasha pushes him forward, like he knows what Evgeny’s thinking and wants him to say so.

“I would say sorry for not calling, but then again, I did, you just didn’t answer me,” Jojo says, but he’s shaking his head like he’s messing with Evgeny. “I wasn’t sure who’s going to drop us off so I left my bags in my car.”

“Sasha’s going to drive you guys there,” Nicke says. “Maybe I’ll go with him too. Where are you guys going anyway? Neither of you has said anything.”

Jojo and Evgeny look at each other then; Evgeny told Jojo not to say anything, but he also didn’t tell him what to say in case anyone asked. So, they look at each other, as if they’re going to figure out something to say just by looking at each other. Evgeny’s mind is blank, absolutely nothing comes to mind. Finally, after what feels like an eternity but is probably more like thirty seconds, Jojo gives him a look that says something like fine, I’ll take one for the team. 

Jojo clears his throat and says, “Uh, well, Nicke you remember Oli, right? Well, he’s getting married and he asked me to be there.”

Nicke looks a little surprised. 

“No, that can’t be true,” Nicke says, laughs in disbelief. “He’s never been the marrying type anyway.”

“Did you forget we were engaged for a whole year in high school? He’s definitely been the marrying type for a while now.”

“To be fair, he did think you were the best looking guy he’d ever seen in his life. And it was high school, who isn’t engaged in high school? That doesn’t really count.”

Jojo just rolls his eyes, but stays quiet.

“Kinda last minute, but I’m sure Jojo will be a great tour guide,” Evgeny says. “Best tour guide. He probably knows Sweden so much, like the back of his palm. We won’t get lost at all, we have a real good time, right?”

Jojo looks immensely relieved that Evgeny finally said something.

He nods and says, “Of course.”

Evgeny’s really thankful that he’s found his soulmate. Or at least, he’s pretty damn sure that Jojo’s it for him.

\/\/\/

Getting to Russia takes far shorter than what Evgeny remembers. Maybe it’s the fact that he hasn’t been there in over two hundred years, or maybe the fact that he falls asleep on Jojo’s shoulder as soon as the plane takes off. Evgeny’s not going to deny that, even though he is over six hundred years old, he hates flying with a burning passion enough to rival hell’s flames. So maybe the passing out on someone is just his coping mechanism to make it through the flight without spilling his guts on the seat next to him.

Anyway, Evgeny falls asleep on Jojo pretty quickly and only realizes they’re in Russia when Jojo starts shaking him awake. 

“If you would stop moving, then maybe I could keep being comfortable,” Evgeny mumbles, in Russian; Old Russian, just like he always does when he’s just waking up. 

“You do realize I don’t have a clue what you just said, right?” Jojo asks, but it doesn’t sound like he’s mad. “You have to speak to me in Swedish or English. Please.”

“Fine, whatever, your shoulder isn’t that comfortable anyway,” he says, this time in Old Swedish. 

“Ok, that sounds more like Swedish but I still don’t really understand what you’re saying. Modern Swedish please.”

Evgeny finally opens his eyes, and sits up straight. He looks over at Jojo: his eyes are red also, like he’d been sleeping too, and the hair on the top of his head is sticking straight up into the air. Evgeny’s pretty damn sure that there’s also dried drool on the left corner of Jojo’s mouth.

“Let’s get out of here before we back to Washington,” Evgeny says, and stretches. His bones crack, and he feels marginally better. “Ready to spend week in best country in the world?”

“This doesn’t look like Sweden,” Jojo jokes. 

Evgeny laughs, and tries to ignore the way Jojo is looking at him. There’s no way he’ll be able to control himself if he does.

\/\/\/

Their hotel is much further than Evgeny anticipated. But if he’s being honest, he didn’t really ask Anatoly where he’d put them in; Anatoly had just sent Evgeny an address, and that had been the end of that.

“What does he look like?” Jojo asks, breaks Evgeny out of the sort of trance he’d fallen in while looking out the window of the car. “Does he look Russian like you, or Russian like Sasha?”

Evgeny shrugs, he doesn’t really know what to say to that. Anatoly doesn’t look like any other Russian person he’s ever met, looks almost like he could be from another world, but Evgeny doesn’t know how to say that without sounding like he’s still deeply enamored by him, which, he’s not, but maybe there’s still some residual feelings in there somewhere - not that he’ll ever admit to them.

“He’s beautiful,” Evgeny says, turning his attention to Jojo. “He looks like angel with blonde hair that goes down to his shoulders; don’t know if he cut it recently, but when he left it was like that. I’m not in love with him anymore, it’s just, he’s really easy on my eyes.”

There’s an awkward silence that neither of them fill in for a while.

“I used to be in love with Nicke,” Jojo says, and doesn’t sound like he’s still in love with him, which is good, Evgeny guesses. Instead, he sounds a little sad, like maybe they went through a lot because of it. “He’s a brother to me now, but sometimes I look at him and think what could’ve been.”

“Did you ever tell him?” Evgeny asks, to which Jojo makes a face, one like he’s just bit into the world’s most sour orange. “I mean, you guys are great best friends, no? He won’t hit you or kick you out, or nothing bad.”

Jojo just shrugs, then looks out the window. 

“I couldn’t tell him, are you joking? I just couldn’t put that pressure on him,” Jojo says, and swallows hard. “Just like me, just like any unpaired human, Nicke wanted to pair; there’s nothing that he wanted more. I couldn’t just say: hey, I’m in love with you and expect everything to remain the way it was. I couldn’t do that.”

“That makes lot of sense. Have you been in love with anyone else, besides him?”

Jojo just shakes his head. 

“Maybe this weekend you fall in love with nice Russian man, have nice Russian pair party, then have best Russian wedding,” Evgeny tries to joke, but ultimately, the joke falls very flat. “You won’t be alone always, I know it.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Jojo says, and smiles sadly. 

\/\/\/

When they arrive at their hotel, Evgeny helps Jojo with his bags, and then holds the hotel doors open for him. This earns him a weird look from Jojo, but Evgeny doesn’t care, he just wants to do something nice for him; after all, Jojo flew across the ocean for him without hesitation. 

It’s the least he can do. 

He checks them in at the front desk, flirts with the cute receptionist there, then walks back to Jojo with their two room keys.

“We don’t have to meet Anatoly until tomorrow morning, so we can just take our time to settle down, then get dinner,” Evgeny says. “Sound good?”

“Great,” Jojo smiles, and it makes Evgeny’s stomach feel weird, in the best way possible, of course. “I really need a shower first, though, I feel like I smell really bad.”

They’re in front of the elevator now, Jojo pushes the button that’ll bring the elevator down to them. Hopefully it won’t take all that long, even though the hotel’s a big one. 

“You smell great,” Evgeny says, and he’s completely serious. Jojo just looks at him, but there’s no disgust in his eyes; instead, there’s something else, something a little dark. 

“You’re just saying that to be nice.”

Evgeny steps a little closer to Jojo, he watches him swallow hard. 

“I’m a vampire, remember? I never lie about human smell.”

Just as Jojo’s tilting his head back, to expose his neck, the elevator dings and the moment is broken. They both rush inside, and Evgeny presses the button to the fifteenth floor. Neither of them says anything, neither of them turns to look at each other. 

Once they’re inside their room, Jojo wordlessly takes his bag from Evgeny and locks himself in the bathroom. 

What were they even about to do? Once that line was crossed, there’s really no way to uncross it, and Evgeny isn’t all that sure they were ready to go that far anyway.

\/\/\/

The cab ride to dinner is quiet, each of them looking out of their respective windows. Once they’re inside the restaurant, waiting for their food, however, Jojo’s the first one to break the silence. 

“So, why did you invite me to this pair party?” he asks, ripping apart one of the complementary breadsticks, and handing one half to Evgeny; Evgeny takes it and stuffs it into his mouth. “I get that you’re worried about your other friends potentially causing a scene, but you could just as easily asked someone else, no? I feel like you’re one of those people with a lot of friends and I just don’t get why, uh, nevermind, I’m rambling too much. What I really mean to ask is: why me?”

“I guess this is the part where I tell you that I told Anatoly that I was bringing my pair human to his pair party,” Evgeny says, trying his best to seem casual. “And also, we have been paired for three hundred twenty years, so the same as when he left me.”

“So you want me to pretend to be your fake pair human? With other real vampires around? I thought they can smell when humans are paired. Someone is going to figure out that we’re lying to everyone.”

“In Russia, we don’t talk about this a lot, it’s seen as being rude if you ask someone about that. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“If you say so,” Jojo says. He’s about to say something else, but just then, the waitress comes back with their food. 

\/\/\/

On the way back to the hotel, things are more friendly between them. Jojo’s sitting closer to Evgeny, and he’s not shy about getting all up in his space. Maybe it’s the two drinks he had at dinner, or maybe it’s the fact that he’s really fucking close to Evgeny that he just doesn’t care anymore. Either way, it’s nice, and it makes Evgeny wish it was all real, this thing that’s going on between them; Evgeny wishes so badly for this thing that’s growing between them to last beyond the weekend. 

When they’re back at their hotel, Evgeny offers his hand to help Jojo out of the cab. 

Jojo takes it and they end up holding hands all the way to the entrance. There, Evgeny lets go and opens the door for Jojo, but then takes his hand again as they walk to the elevator. He doesn’t let go this time. Evgeny holds Jojo’s hand all the way up to their room, only letting go of it once they reach their door. 

“I don’t know why I forgot there’s only one bed in this room,” Jojo says as soon as they walk inside. 

“Maybe because you locked yourself in the bathroom as soon as we walk in,” Evgeny says, before he sits on the edge of the bed, to take his shoes off. “Makes sense, I told Anatoly that we’re a pair; nobody thinks pairs sleep on different beds.”

“Oh. I guess you’re right. So, uh, what side do you want?”

Evgeny shrugs. 

“It’s been long time since I’ve shared my bed with another person,” he says, feeling oddly ashamed because of it. 

“You really expect me to believe you haven’t slept with anyone else on the same bed?” Jojo asks, a little surprised. “There’s no way someone like you hasn’t shared his bed with someone in over three hundred years.”

“What you mean someone like me?”

Jojo turns red then, and shrugs. 

 

“I don’t know, it’s just, you know what I mean.”

“I don’t, tell me.”

Jojo shakes his head. Evgeny gets up then and walks to Jojo, grabs him by the shoulders and makes him look at him. 

“Don’t make me say it,” he says, shy. “You know what I mean when I say someone like you. Someone, uh, handsome and good to be around, I don’t know, like someone really likeable.”

“You think I’m handsome?” Evgeny asks, a little teasing.

“Yeah, I mean, you’re not ugly so.”

“Good enough for me.”

They both laugh at that, and then fall into a comfortable silence. They stare at each other for a while, just kind of blinking at each other, nothing else.

“You know, I like you, a lot,” Evgeny says, and it’s then he makes his mind up to hold nothing back. He tries to think of what to say next, something that won’t impact their friendship as much if this were to go downhill. “I know you tell me this, but I also think you are good to spend time with. I know this is fake for just this weekend, but I feel we are good together.”

“Yeah, yeah, I think so too,” Jojo says; he looks shocked, like maybe he hadn’t expected this to be said to him like this. “We, we’re good, uh, together, yeah.”

Evgeny smiles and lets go of Jojo’s shoulders, says:

“We should eat dinner when we get back home, just you and me, ok?”

“It’s a, uh, it’s a dinner.”

Jojo smiles before he rushes to the bathroom, and once again, locks himself inside. He hears Nicke’s name and a flurry of Swedish, but Evgeny ultimately decides not to listen in, would feel wrong if he did, so he just turns the tv on and lays back on the bed.

\/\/\/

Jojo’s in the bathroom for a long time. By the time he comes back out, Evgeny’s halfway asleep, just watching one of those long infomercials about kitchen appliances. 

Evgeny pretends to be asleep when Jojo comes out of the bathroom. He stands at the foot of the bed, just watching Evgeny sleep. It would be creepy if it was anyone else, under any other circumstance, but the fact that Jojo’s got a huge smile on his face and whispers to himself I can’t believe this in Swedish makes it ok.

Evgeny smiles to himself when Jojo turns back around. 

\/\/\/

Evgeny’s pretty sure Jojo faces away from him when he gets in bed, so he can’t explain how they end up on opposite sides of the bed, with Jojo spooning Evgeny from behind. He’s really confused at first, his mind a little foggy from sleep, but then:

“Can you not think so loud, I can hear you all the way back here,” Jojo says, but hugs Evgeny closer to him, maybe unaware that it’s Evgeny whom he’s spooning. “Wait, actually, I need you to think of something else I can call you because now that we slept together, I don’t think Evgeny is going to be not weird.”

“But you didn’t buy me dinner first,” Evgeny jokes. “I let you sleep on my bed with me, and you didn’t even feed me first. You have to call me Mr. Evgeny until you buy me proper dinner.”

“I flew across the ocean for you, I think I earned calling you something other than your first name.”

They both laugh at that, and Evgeny really likes the way Jojo’s laugh feels at his back; it’s a little like a massage, a massage that challenges you, one that makes you feel good and not just sore.

“Kuzma.”

“Hmm?”

“Call me Kuzma, it’s what my mom calls me when she’s mad at me, but mostly when I do something good that makes her happy cry,” Evgeny says, grabs one of Jojo’s hands and gives it a small squeeze. “Only she calls me that, so you are very special. Everyone call me Kuzya or Kuzy, but not you, you can call me Kuzma.”

“Why am I so special that I get the special nickname reserved for your mom?” Jojo asks, sounding genuinely curious. “Besides, I thought Evgeny’s were Zhenya. What’s wrong with that one?”

“Who taught you how to say that right?”

“I have other Russian friends besides you, you know.”

“I know, but who taught you that?”

Evgeny can feel Jojo rolling his eyes. 

“This guy I used to feed, Andrei,” Jojo replies. “We were about to start pairing, but then he moved back to Russia, I think. That’s what he told me, at least.”

“So you have fed vampires before?” Evgeny asks, latching onto this conversation so maybe Jojo will forget about the whole Zhenya thing. “When was the last time?”

“Well, I was 22, so maybe, I wanna say, five years ago?” 

“That’s a long time.”

“Yeah.”

They fall silent then, and Evgeny thinks he’s gotten away with not answering Jojo’s initial question. But then:

“Since we’re acting like a pair, you have to tell me why you don’t like the Zhenya nickname, so I don’t accidentally call you that in front of someone.”

Evgeny sighs and rubs his face. 

“Anatoly called me that all the time, was his name for me,” he says, quiet. “I started hating that nickname after he left. Told everyone to stop calling me that so I wouldn’t remember him. I didn’t forgive him for almost 300 years; it still hurts a little bit now.”

“I’m sorry for asking that,” Jojo says, and presses closer to Evgeny; Evgeny just grabs Jojo’s hand and squeezes. “Don’t worry. This weekend, I’ll be the best fake pair you could ever dream of.”

Evgeny knows that was supposed to be meant as something uplifting, maybe even inspiring, but it sits like a lead weight on his stomach.

\/\/\/

They fall asleep again after that, Jojo still pressed up against Evgeny. It feels good, feels comfortable, which probably explains why they fall asleep and only wake up because there’s someone knocking at their door. Both of them groan, because really, neither of them wants to get up and out of their comfortable spot.

But.

But the knocking keeps happening, starts to become more insistent the more they make whoever is on the other end wait.

“You get, you are guest here,” Evgeny mumbles. “Go, or they knock door down, we have to pay for.”

“I don’t think that’s how it’s supposed to work,” Jojo replies, but slowly peels himself away from Evgeny. Evgeny can hear him rubbing down his body, most likely to make sure he has clothes on; then, Jojo walks to the door. 

There’s a gasp when the door opens, well, more like two.

“Mackan,” the voice says, and it’s said with such admiration it frankly makes Evgeny jealous; he turns around then. Both Jojo and the man walk closer and into a tight embrace. Evgeny makes a face. “Mackan, sweetheart, how are you here? I mean, I thought this is room 514.”

“It is,” Jojo says, and it comes out muffled because they’re still hugging, and not any less than before. “Andrei, what are you doing here?”

Evgeny clears his throat then, interrupting their conversation and causing them to break away from the hug.

“Shouldn’t be so close to my pair, I could mistake it for something it’s not and hurt you,” Evgeny says, in Russian, as he gets up and walks closer to Jojo. He lightly takes Jojo’s hand and pulls him closer, and away from Andrei. Jojo might not be his real pair, but Andrei doesn’t need to know that. 

“He’s not your damn pair and you know it,” Andrei replies, angry now. He walks closer to Evgeny, so Evgeny lightly pushes Jojo away, makes him step behind him. He walks closer to Andrei, chest to chest; they’re the same height so it’s easy for them to see eye to eye. “Your smell is too faint on him for that to be true. If it was, I couldn’t smell him without smelling you too.”

“I don’t care what you think, he’s mine and there’s nothing you can do about that.”

That causes Andrei to laugh, loud and unrestrained. It makes Evgeny want to punch him in the face, but he doesn’t. He knows if he does, he won’t stop until Andrei is dead.

“Oh really? Is that so?” Andrei asks, teasing, in the worst way possible. “I had him many times before you even had a chance, I can make him come back to me with a snap of my fingers.”

Evgeny’s hands ball up into fists, and he’s about to throw a punch, but Jojo holds him back.

“Ok, that’s enough,” he says, seriously. He steps in between them and pushes them apart. “What’s going on?”

Jojo’s looking at both of them, but Evgeny can only look away.

“Nothing, just a simple talk between two good Russian men,” Andrei says, fake. “I’m here because Anatoly sent for you, bit of change in plans so I’m supposed to take you to the new place.”

“It’s not like this is the first time he changes his mind about something,” Evgeny mumbles to himself, then walks away to get ready.

\/\/\/

Evgeny gets ready quickly; he doesn’t want to leave Jojo and Andrei alone for too long. He knows he doesn’t really have a right to act this way, especially since Jojo doesn’t owe him anything, but there’s just something about seeing Jojo with someone else that makes him feel insecure. Really, he can’t stop Jojo from being with whoever he wants, but the truth is, he doesn’t want Jojo to be with anyone else but him.

He really does have to be clearer about what he wants, enough of dancing around things and not being straightforward with them.

When he comes out of the bathroom, Evgeny sees Andrei and Jojo sitting close, too close for his liking, anyway. Their thighs are touching, and Jojo’s looking at Andrei like he hung the fucking moon and the stars, and everything else in the sky. It takes him a little bit to realize they’re speaking in Swedish, talking about the things Andrei has done since he last saw Jojo, and apparently how much they’ve missed each other.

It makes Evgeny burn with fury.

“You should get ready,” Evgeny says, firm. He pretends not to stare at them while he searches for another shirt in his suitcase. “Don’t want to keep Mr. Diva waiting too long. He gets really mad, throws a fit.”

Jojo nods; he squeezes Andrei’s hand before he gets up, gets his clothes out of his suitcase, and heads into the bathroom.

“I thought I told you to stay away from him or I would take it the wrong way,” Evgeny says, before he takes his shirt off and puts on the new one. He looks at Andrei with as much confidence as he can, and then continues, “I don’t care what you think our situation is, he’s with me now and there’s nothing you can do about it. Stay the fuck away, ok?”

“If you think you’re going to intimidate me, then you are very, very sadly mistaken,” Andrei says. He stands up, walks closer to Evgeny, and pokes him in the chest, as if he’s taunting him. “I told you, I could have Marcus back in the palm of my hand if I wanted to, and there’s nothing you can do about that, ok?” Andrei’s silent for a while, as if contemplating something serious. He gets a weird, mean look on his face right before he speaks again. “How dare you show up to this wedding with this farce? I know you’re not that stupid, and you know that everyone there will be able to tell that you two aren’t a pair. You’re out of your mind if you think anyone but Anatoly is going to believe your lie. Pathetic.”

Evgeny smirks, pokes Andrei right back.

“That’s the only person that matters.”

\/\/\/

They arrive at a ballroom. It’s a big empty space, with a tall ceiling and windows all around near the top. There are two doors on either side, possibly leading to hallways that probably lead to other, smaller rooms. The room is empty, except for tables of course, and chairs, and all the decorations one would expect from a pair celebration. Evgeny thinks it’s a little too big for it to be just a pair party, but he’s not going to complain, it’s not his place. Besides, Anatoly always loved to have big celebrations, huge ones where he was sure he was going to be the main focus of attention.

Jojo takes Evgeny’s hand right before they start hearing footsteps coming down one of the hallways, the left one, Evgeny’s pretty sure. Evgeny can smell him, Anatoly. He can feel Anatoly coming right before he steps out into the big empty room.

Anatoly.

He’s just as beautiful as Evgeny remembers him, and it hurts. He’s so beautiful it fucking hurts. Anatoly’s cut his blonde hair short, shorter than Evgeny’s ever seen him have - the sides are short, really close to his head, with the hair at the top of his head just slightly longer, slightly waiver than Evgeny remembers. His brown eyes are brighter than before, almost shinier. 

He looks good, stronger than the last time they saw each other. Anatoly’s wearing a pair of dark wash jeans, ones that Evgeny’s pretty sure he bought for him, and a red t-shirt, one that looks like it’s a size too small for him, but somehow, Anatoly makes it work. He’s also wearing his favorite pair of black sneakers, something else Evgeny bought for him. Anatoly probably doesn’t have anything that Evgeny bought for him anymore - there’s just no way - and it’s probably just Evgeny holding onto something that’s no longer there, seeing something where there isn’t. Trying to make himself feel better, somehow.

Evgeny just keeps holding on to Jojo’s hand because he’s afraid that if he doesn’t, he’ll go running into Anatoly’s arms.

Anatoly smiles, wide, and walks closer to them, slow and calculated.

“Zhenya,” Anatoly says, and damn it, Evgeny said, Evgeny told him not to call him that again or he would never hear from him again. But at this second, at this moment in time, Evgeny really can’t find it in him to fight it; he just squeezes Jojo’s hand tighter. “Zhenya, you came. I didn’t think you would. Thank you for coming, it means a lot to me that you’re here.”

Anatoly’s holding his hands in fists, right to his sides, like maybe he wants to run into Evgeny’s arms just like he always did whenever they spent any time apart. Evgeny’s really glad they’re not alone right now.

“You, you said it meant a lot to you, and I couldn’t just not show up,” Evgeny replies, in Old Russian because he doesn’t want Jojo to understand what he’s saying. “I thought it was time for me to finally see you again, so here I am.”

“Here you are.”

They stare at each other for what feels like an eternity, before Andrei clears his throat, and they all turn to look at him; Andrei just nods his head in Jojo’s direction.

“Why don’t you introduce him to me, Zhenya?” Anatoly asks, and Evgeny really would say something about the Zhenya thing, but he just can’t make himself do it, he’s just too weak for Anatoly still, unfortunately, and maybe Anatoly knows that too well. 

“Right,” Evgeny says, and clears his throat. “This is my pair, uh, Marcus. Sasha introduced us week after, well, you know, and we had instant chemistry so we pair.”

Anatoly nods, and stretches out a hand for Jojo to shake. It’s weird watching them do it, like two opposite storylines coming together; it’s unsettling to say the least. 

“I’m not sure how much Zhenya’s told you about me, but I’m pretty sure I’m not that bad,” Anatoly jokes, but Jojo just makes a face to that.

“He’s told me everything, and I’m sure that’s not quite right,” Jojo says, when he pulls away from the handshake. “But, anyway, we are here to be with you on your pair celebration day. Thank you for having us.”

“Should we get going?” Andrei interrupts then. “Everyone will start wondering where we are.”

“You’re right,” Anatoly says, pointing to the left hallway, the one he came from. “That way, please.”

They all follow him back.

\/\/\/

There are a lot of people Evgeny remembers, and is pretty sure they remember him, judging by the way they look at him when he comes in, but none of them say anything, none of them even say hello. It hurts him a little, mostly because they all said they were his friends when he was with Anatoly. That supposed friendship had been so fragile, so weak and so broken from the start, Evgeny suposes. 

Anatoly asks them to sit at a table with him, his pair, Aleksei - who is supposed to be joining them in just a little while - and Andrei.

“There are supposed to be six people at each table, but Andrei here didn’t want to bring a date so it’s just us five here,” Anatoly says, turning his attention to Jojo, clearly in an attempt to try to get on Jojo’s good side. “I hope I’m not overstepping my boundaries here, but, how did you meet Zhenya? You’re not his usual type.”

“Tolya,” Evgeny says, which seems to surprise everyone at the table, including himself. He hasn’t called Anatoly that nickname in over three hundred years, vowed never to say that nickname ever again after Anatoly left. “Apologize. Now.”

“But I’m just asking a simple question, nothing to get upset about.”

“It’s ok, Kuzma, I don’t care telling him about this,” Jojo says, which makes Anatoly get a sour look on his face, probably having something to do with the fact that Evgeny’s mom never really liked him, never allowed Anatoly to call Evgeny that. “We met at a party at Sasha’s house, he introduced us actually. That’s all you need to know.”

“I guess he really is your type after all,” Anatoly says, in Old Russian, and he sounds amused, like this is all too fun for him. “I guess you didn’t lose your touch after all this time, I guess you didn’t forget me after all.”

And that’s when he can’t take it anymore. Everything Anatoly is saying hits too close to home, and he just can’t go on like this. He gets up, without excusing himself, and storms off to go into the empty ballroom. He doesn’t know who he wants to follow him, Anatoly or Jojo.

In the end, it’s Anatoly who follows him out.

“You know you can’t keep running away from what you know is true, Zhenya,” Anatoly says, and he sounds close, too close; Evgeny doesn’t turn around to face him. “I know you still love me, and I don’t blame you one bit.”

It turns out Anatoly still knows him a little too well.

“You can’t keep saying that in front of my pair,” Evgeny says, and he feels weak, too weak. “We have been over for 300 years, and you know it; you can’t keep bringing these old feelings back like this.”

Anatoly laughs softly, then wraps his arms around Evgeny from behind, hooks his chin over Evgeny’s shoulder, hugs him tight. They both sigh, melting against each other. It feels wrong - Anatoly is paired, and Evgeny, well, he’s not supposed to be going back to an ex who left him for dead - but feels so right.

Finally, Evgeny gives in and puts his hands over where Anatoly’s hands join over Evgeny’s belly.

“We can’t be doing this,” Evgeny says. “It’s wrong and you know it.”

“We’re not doing anything wrong, it’s just a friendly hug between friends, that’s all,” Anatoly says, easy and free.

“Why did you do it? Why did you leave when you knew you were my everything? You knew how much I loved you, and you still left,” Evgeny says, his eyes are stinging a bit. “Why-”

Suddenly, Anatoly lets go of Evgeny and walks to stand next to him; Aleksei steps inside a few seconds after. 

“Look for me after this lunch is over, we will talk then, ok?” Anatoly asks, whispering. He then puts his best smile on, and walks to Aleksei with open arms. 

Evgeny doesn’t know how to feel just then.

\/\/\/

Evgeny hates that he likes Aleksei so much right away.

\/\/\/

Evgeny really hates depending on someone else to do things for him. But, he has things to do. People to talk to. So, he asks Andrei to take Jojo back to the hotel, tells him to be gone by the time he’s back there, doesn’t want to see him until the pair party.

He knows he’ll probably end up bumping into Andrei again before then.

“Why don’t you go home and finish packing for our honeymoon, yeah?” Anatoly asks Aleksei; Anatoly has his hands on Aleksei’s face, and Aleksei has his arms around Anatoly’s waist. It makes Evgeny a little jealous that he doesn’t have that, at least, not anymore. He tries not to stare. “I’ll be there in a bit, just need to finish taking care of something here.”

“Ok,” Aleksei agrees easily. “Just don’t take too long, you know I can’t stay away from you for a long time.”

They kiss; Evgeny has to turn away then.

“Come on, let’s go to the roof,” Anatoly says. Evgeny didn’t even notice when Aleksei left the room, he can’t find it in himself to care that much. “I guess I have a lot of explaining to do.”

Evgeny just nods, and follows Anatoly down the hall. There’s a door near the entry to the main ballroom. Anatoly takes a set of keys out of his front, left pocket. The keys open a door which leads to a staircase, one that Evgeny’s assuming leads to the roof. 

Once they arrive there, Anatoly points to a corner where there’s a small bench, one that’s barely big enough for the both of them. They sit, and they’re pressed close, their whole bodies touching from shoulders to ankles. It’s nice, it reminds Evgeny of the times when they used to sit on their front porch, on their favorite red chairs, having a drink, just looking up at the sky. Better times, Evgeny thinks, happier times, maybe.

As if on cue, Anatoly asks:

“Do you still have our red chairs?” 

Evgeny shakes his head.

“That’s the first thing I threw away when Sasha rescued me,” Evgeny says, a little sad. “I actually broke them, threw them on the street, when Sasha took me out of our house. I was angry and sad. I didn’t want to see anything that reminded me of you. I was happy when I was able to shatter them into tiny, little pieces. I cried and Sasha held me, I cried all over his shirt. I feel so bad for ruining it, it was his favorite shirt.”

“I’m sure that didn’t really matter to him, he probably just wanted to make sure you were ok,” Anatoly says. Evgeny can’t quite place the tone of his voice. “He probably really hates me, huh?”

“Yeah, it took all that I have to stop him from coming here after you left. He wanted to kill you, you know, he was really mad. I think he was as mad as I was.”

“Why didn’t you come look for me, if you knew where I was?”

Evgeny shakes his head again. 

“I was afraid I was going to forgive you so quickly. I didn’t want that to happen,” he says. “You hadn’t earned it yet. You really fucked me up. You really hurt me. You were everything to me, and you just up and left. You didn’t even give me a fucking reason. That was really fucked up, you know. But I think the thing that still fucks me up, even today, is that I still love you. Maybe not the same as I did before, but I, I still love you.”

Anatoly takes his hand then, interlocks their fingers together.

“I’m really sorry,” he says, and takes a long breath. “I shouldn’t have done that without an explanation. I, I fucked up big time and there’s nothing I can ever do to make it up to you. I still love you too, a lot. I’m sorry I left, I was scared.”

“Scared of what? I gave you everything you could have ever wanted.”

“That’s exactly what I was scared of. I was scared that I was starting to take you for granted, that one day you wouldn’t be there, so I had to leave you first.”

“I wasn’t going to leave you, I never planned on it,” Evgeny says, squeezing Anatoly’s hand tight. “I was willing to leave everyone and everything behind for you. I was willing to give my life for you, that’s how much I loved you. The only reason I let you go and tried to forget about you was because I told you I would be with you until you didn’t want me to be.”

“I know, I know, but my stupid brain told me something else,” Anatoly says, he’s crying now. “I wanted to stay, I wanted to spend the rest of eternity with you, but I just couldn’t. There was always going to be this fear in me that you were going to leave. I just couldn’t let that happen.”

They’re quiet after that, just the slight sound of sniffling.

“Why didn’t you try to look for me until now?”

“I didn’t want to fall back into the same pattern. Things would be ok for a couple of weeks, then I would start doubting us again. I would start feeling like maybe you’re too good for me, and that I don’t deserve someone like you. That’s no way to live a life.”

Quiet again.

“We could always run away together.”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” Anatoly says, and laughs softly. “You’re paired, I’m paired and I’m getting married tomorrow. You can’t make me do what I did to you again.”

“I guess not,” Evgeny says. His heart aches, with the weight of a thousand pounds. If this is what closure feels like, Evgeny wishes to not have longed for it at all. “Thank you for making me so happy all those years, I couldn’t have asked for someone better to spend my time with. You’ll always have a piece of me, even if you’re not mine anymore. I love you.”

“You’re still the love of my life, but I think it’s time we move on from each other. I’m sorry for everything I did, and I hope that someday you’ll be able to forgive me.”

“I already have.”

\/\/\/

“He’s good for you, you know,” Anatoly says, like a confession, right as Evgeny’s about to step out of his car. “I know I haven’t seen you in a long time, but I can tell there’s something about him that makes you light up. I’m glad you were able to find somebody that can give you everything I never could.”

Evgeny feels bad. Anatoly probably still believes that he and Jojo are a genuine pair. 

“We’re not, uh, we’re not paired,” Evgeny confesses, Anatoly doesn’t seem fazed at all. 

“I know that.”

“How?”

“Aleksei mentioned it, said he couldn’t smell you on him at all,” Anatoly comments. “But still, he’s good for you. Don’t let this one get away, not again.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Evgeny leans over the center and kisses Anatoly’s cheek, then gets out of the car thereafter.

\/\/\/

Jojo’s still awake by the time Evgeny makes it up to their room. He’s on his phone, in their bed, facing away from the door. He’s watching a terrible Swedish drama that he found online. He’s laughing, but it’s really not because there’s something funny, or good about the show, but because it’s really awful.

Evgeny tries to be as quiet and subtle as he can, while getting himself ready for bed. He’s not as successful as he would like because Jojo turns his phone off, and then turns to look at him.

“Not to be a nagging partner, but I was starting to wonder when you were coming back,” he says, a little like he’s ashamed to be saying it, maybe a bit insecure. “I know you stayed behind, and honestly, I was worried.”

“About?”

Jojo makes a noise, one that says don’t make me say it, please.

“You know. That you weren’t coming back. I saw the way you looked at each other, there’s no way there’s nothing there anymore. There’s clearly still something that you two feel about each other.”

“There is, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to do something stupid. He’s getting married tomorrow, apparently. I thought Andrei had just said it wrong. I can’t make him do what he did to me again, that’s what he said, at least. I agree.”

“So you’re not going to try to secretly run away with him during the wedding?” Jojo asks, amused. 

“I could never do that.”

\/\/\/

They wake up late, like we only have thirty minutes to get ready before we’re really late late. Neither of them had set an alarm, apparently, and it makes Evgeny want to facepalm himself because they can’t be late, not to something like this. The only reason he knows they’re late is because someone is practically pounding down their door, probably Andrei judging by the way he keeps saying you’re going to be late to the wedding if you guys aren’t up by now over and over again.

“Come on, we have to go,” Evgeny says, in Modern Swedish, because he knows, he can sympathize with Jojo that his brain probably takes a while to warm up to a language that isn’t really his. He shakes Jojo, trying hard not to startle him too much. “Anatoly is getting married and I promised him that I would be there from the start. We have to go, come on.”

“Why did you have to choose me anyway?” Jojo mumbles, then turns away from Evgeny. “You have so many friends to choose from, but it had to be me. Why? I just want to go back to sleep without you nagging me.”

“I already told you why: Sasha would kill Anatoly, Natalya would cause a scene, you have comfortable shoulders to cry on. Let’s go, we’re going to be really late.”

Jojo seems to take the hint then. He gets up and stretches, scratches his stomach on the way to the bathroom; Andrei knocks hard again just then. Jojo looks back at Evgeny, annoyed. That annoyance seems to melt away once he opens the door. 

“You have 27 minutes to get ready,” Andrei says, leaning down to give Jojo a kiss on the cheek. “Anatoly’s going to be upset if you guys show up late, you should know that better than anyone, Evgeny.”

“I’m so glad I took a shower before I went to sleep last night, so I can take a quick one right now,” Jojo says, he opens the doors to the closet, and takes out two suits, a dark grey one and a black one. He puts them up for both Andrei and Evgeny to see. “Which one should I wear? I don’t want to wear anything that Aleksei or Anatoly will wear. That would be, uh, awkward. It’s like if I wore a white suit to a wedding in which a bride is getting married. Remember when your sister did that?”

“Don’t even remind me, that was the most embarrassing day of my life,” Andrei laughs. “Viktoriya still can’t look Anna in the eyes, and it’s been like six years.”

Silence fills the room just then, and Evgeny’s left just staring at the two of them staring at each other. It makes him jealous, the fact that two people who stopped seeing each other a long time ago can just go back and pick right up where they last left off. It’s a little irritating, if he’s being honest, but he really can’t say anything without seeming like a jealous asshole who, really, doesn’t even have the right to feel jealousy in the first place.

If Jojo and Andrei keep flirting like this right in front of him, it’s going to be the longest night of his life.

\/\/\/

Jojo picks the light grey suit. Evgeny puts on the only one he packed, a dark red, maybe maroon suit; Anatoly’s favorite.

\/\/\/

The ballroom looks drastically different than when they were last there. The tables and chairs are arranged in a completely different manner than before, the tablecloths are a different color, from light green to champagne. But mostly, it seems different now because there are so many people, many more than what Evgeny anticipated, not that he anticipated anything if he’s honest. Everyone looks so well-dressed, the best dressed group of people he’s been around in a long time.

Everyone turns to look at him and Jojo when they come in. Maybe it’s because they look a bit hastily put together, but Evgeny has a strong feeling that it’s because of Jojo. After all, he’s an unpaired human who hasn’t fed anyone in five years. He’s fresh, and there’s no way any sane vampire could resist him, doesn’t matter if they’re paired or not. It really will be a long night; Evgeny can already feel that he’s going to fight off a couple of hungry vampires, and greedy ones too. He can’t let them do it, no matter how insistent they are.

Andrei leads them to a table where Anatoly and Aleksei are deep in conversation about nothing other than salt. It reminds Evgeny of Sasha and Nicke, a little. But it also makes him think about how he never got human obsession with salt. He prefers sugar.

“Good, you’re here,” Anatoly says, smiling wide. He looks good like always, radiant, wearing Evgeny’s favorite suit on him, a navy blue one with black detailing. “We can start with the ceremony now.” He turns his attention to Aleksei then. “Should we do the wedding first, then the pair? Or the other way around?”

“Pair first,” Aleksei replies, instantly. “Wedding ceremonies can take a long time, and I don’t want to rush things.”

Anatoly nods, Aleksei stands up and takes his hand.

Finally, this is it.

\/\/\/

Evgeny doesn’t know how he makes it through the ceremonies. He loves all the romantic stuff, lives for it, but there’s just something about seeing Anatoly being romantic with someone else that sets his insides on fire. It makes him want to get up and break all of this up, drag Anatoly out by his arm, and run away with him somewhere far away where they can never be found again.

He knows he’s got no damn right to feel this way. Anatoly’s happy, really happy with Aleksei, can tell that he feels that way just by the way Anatoly says his vows, the tears in his eyes, the way his voice wavers just slightly so.

But still.

That should be them, Tolya and Zhenya, not Anatoly and Aleksei.

\/\/\/

Evgeny knows he has to leave, get out of Russia and go back home, when Anatoly and Aleksei have their first dance at the reception. He can never see Anatoly again, ever, at least, not as long as he still feels this way. 

He waits until it’s over, signals Anatoly over. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Anatoly asks, smiling wide and sweaty as fuck.

“Nothing,” Evgeny says, carefully examining Anatoly’s face one last time. He makes sure to pause long enough to make sure Jojo is paying attention to them, and not just busy downing his drink. “There’s an emergency back home: Sasha’s pair, Nicke, is hurt really bad and I, uh, we need to head back now. I’m sorry but we can’t stay anymore.”

“Oh shit,” Jojo chokes out, a hint of panic in his voice. “Oh shit, is he, is Nicke ok? Oh my god, tell me he’s ok.”

“Doesn’t look good, but we, we have to go. Now.”

Anatoly nods, serious but concerned.

“Ok, ok, go,” he says, worried. “Call me when everything is ok. Thank you for coming. Have a safe flight, please.”

Evgeny just nods and rushes out of there, hand in hand with Jojo.

\/\/\/

They make it back to the hotel just as it starts raining, pouring like the heavens are falling from the sky. They do get a little wet, though, which makes then shiver a little as soon as they step inside the hotel.

“We need to leave now,” Jojo says, wiping water from his forehead, as they walk to the elevator. Evgeny’s tired, exhausted. “If we don’t get there soon, there’s no telling what-”

“He’s not hurt,” Evgeny says, and the elevator doors open just then. They step inside together. “He’s fine. I just really needed to get out of there, or I was going to die.”

Jojo’s silent for a while, probably processing what Evgeny’s just told him.

“You fucking asshole,” he spits out, gets all up in Evgeny’s space, seemingly not caring about the way he looks right now. “You know how I feel about Nicke, and you just use him to get us out of there? What the fuck is your fucking problem? You’ve had three hundred years to get over him, get your head the fuck out of your ass!”

“At least I’m not the one still in love with his best friend, his best fucking friend who has no fucking clue how he feels. That’s pretty fucked up if you ask me.”

“I’m not in love with him anymore, I told you.”

“And how do I know that you’re telling me the truth?”

“Because I’m in love with you.”

The doors open again, Jojo rushes out and doesn’t look back. It’s a good thing they both carry their keycards because Evgeny pushes the button that leads back down to the lobby.

\/\/\/

Evgeny’s only down at the lobby for a couple of hours. By the time he notices, it’s time for them to start heading out to the airport, on their way back home.

Jojo’s bags are all packed up and sitting neatly by his feet when Evgeny comes in. He’s staring blankly at the tv, some cooking show playing on it. He doesn’t even look at Evgeny when he comes in, doesn’t even turn his way when Evgeny starts packing his bags. He brought that on himself, he supposes.

“It’s time to go,” Evgeny says, clears his throat. “The airport isn’t close, and we still have to call someone to get us there.”

“I already called someone for us. He should be here in a few minutes,” Jojo says, cold. There’s a pause. “I’m moving back to Sweden as soon as I can, once we’re back home. Nicke and Andre can come visit me, but there’s really no one to stay in D.C. for anymore.”

Silence. 

“You know why things could never work out between us, right? Please tell me you know,” Evgeny says, practically begs. 

“I get it. You like living in the past, you like to keep loving people that don’t love you anymore. You like putting other people’s feelings, other people’s perceptions of you before yourself. You don’t allow yourself to live in the moment. You think just because one person has left you that everyone else will too, so you hold on to the good parts of that person that left you.”

It feels like the wind has been knocked out of him. He gets up, about to say something, when there’s a knock at the door.

Andrei.

\/\/\/ 

The ride to the airport is long, maybe even longer than when they first came here. Maybe it’s the weight of Jojo’s sudden confession, or maybe it’s the fact that he’s absolutely right when he said that Evgeny’s just living in the past. Maybe it’s the fact that no one’s talking. Maybe it’s the fact that Anatoly’s paired and married, forever belonging to one person for the rest of time. 

But maybe, just maybe, it’s the fact that Evgeny doesn’t know if he can ever break out of Anatoly’s hold, if he can ever return Jojo’s feelings.

“Call me when you’re back in Sweden, ok?” Andrei asks, sweet and placating. “I want to come see you there.”

Jojo just nods. 

“Ok, I’ll call,” he says. He leans over and kisses Andrei on the cheek. 

They head into the airport, bags in tow, headed back home. 

\/\/\/

Andre picks them up at the airport back home. Well, Christian drives, but Andre is also there, a huge ice cream cone in hand. 

“I love being paired, my servant always buys me what I want, whenever I want,” Andre beams. “How awesome is that?” 

“I am your pair, not your servant,” Christian says, and rolls his eyes. Evgeny can tell they have been over this several times, but still, Andre is stubborn, insistent that the way he says things is the right way. It doesn’t bother Christian too much, apparently. “People don’t really say servant anymore, we talked about this.”

Andre just rolls his eyes, and continues licking at his ice cream.

“Nice to see that you’re back, Kuzya. Good to see you again, Kuzya. I’m so glad you made it back in one piece, Kuzya,” Evgeny says, sarcastic; he wants to steer them away from the whole pair theme. “You would think that with how much you guys fight, that you actually hate each other.”

“Well, he’s just really annoying, with his pair this, it’s not servant that,” Andre says.

“Oh please,” Christian says, looking as annoyed as Evgeny’s ever seen him. “You’re so fucking clingy, that I don’t know, honestly, how someone can even stand you. You would think I was the clingy one, but no, it had to be you.”

Their argument devolves into them just yelling at each other about Andre’s neediness and Christian’s isolation. Evgeny doesn’t say anything, neither does Jojo; he’s pretty sure they both know that if either of them says anything to them, the outcome is the same - Andre will take it the wrong way and maybe cry about it, and not talk to them for a couple of weeks. 

So. They stay quiet.

Eventually, the argument dies down, and Andre and Christian just stare at each other. The car goes completely silent, except for the quiet hum of some song on the radio.

They get beeped at. Because of course they do - they’re in the taxi lane, supposedly because Jojo and Evgeny were supposed to get in quick, and they were supposed to leave after that. But instead, they argued. Again.

Sometimes Evgeny wonders how Andre and Christian function alone.

\/\/\/

Christian drives them to Sasha’s house, because of course he does. It’s totally a thing that no one talks about: they all meet there whenever any of them come back from a trip, no matter how short it was. Sasha always wants to know how their trip went, and welcome them back home. No one ever minds, no one ever complains. Sasha’s always nice. Except when he’s angry; he’s really fucking scary. But, Sasha tries his hardest not to get angry, does he ever try. Sasha does a really good job of making people feel like they’re always welcome in his home, which is why everyone always likes coming back to his house whenever they come back from a trip.

They must all come in looking pretty rough because Evgeny doesn’t think he’s seen Sasha’s smile fall off his face any faster than it just did.

“I guess no one is happy to see Uncle Sasha today,” Sasha says, a bit serious. “I made a great dinner for you guys, but I guess no one is in the mood for good food tonight. You guys are making me feel like I’m at a funeral. What happened?”

“Andre is clingy, Christian is distant, and I’m upset with, uh, Evgeny. Where’s Nicke? I have to talk to him,” Jojo says, keeping his voice scarily even and cold. He looks a little impatient, like he could snap at anyone who provokes him even slightly. 

“Upstairs, taking a shower,” Sasha says, nodding in the direction of the staircase. 

Jojo immediately heads upstairs. Andre and Christian head outside, presumably to argue some more. It really is a miracle those two are still together; they haven’t fought this much since they started being friends, not that Evgeny can remember, anyway. 

“What happened with you and Jojo?” Sasha asks, eyebrows furrowed together. 

Evgeny just shrugs.

“Nothing,” he says, biting at the inside of his cheek. 

“You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?”

“Biting the inside of your mouth; you always do that when you’re guilty of something and you’re avoiding saying anything about it.”

Evgeny rolls his eyes. 

“That’s not true,” he says, annoyed. He catches himself before he starts biting himself again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know me.”

He moves further away from Sasha, walks in the direction of the kitchen. Sasha, of course, walks behind him. He’s right behind Evgeny when he turns around. Sasha catches Evgeny’s wrist before he tries walking away again. Smart.

“What happened?” he asks, again. “Nicke told me Jojo is never sad. Why did he look sad?”

It’s always better to rip the bandaid off than just slowly peel it off. Besides, Evgeny’s tired of hiding his feelings. He’s tired of always having to pretend that he’s ok when he’s not. He just wants to feel free, wants to feel like there’s no lead weight sitting on his chest.

So he takes a deep breath, and:

“We didn’t go to Sweden, we went to Russia. Tolya was getting married and he asked me to be there, so of course I went.”

Sasha lets go of him, understandably so. He looks mad, he looks upset, like maybe he wants to punch Evgeny in the face. And maybe, that’s understandable too.

“You might just be the dumbest fucking person I have ever met, and I am almost a thousand years old,” Sasha says. His hands are balled up into fists at his sides, and he looks like he’s trying really hard to keep them there. “What the fuck did you go to Russia to see that piece of shit for? Was it not enough that he fucking left you for dead? Was it not enough that he didn’t answer any of your calls after he left? Was it not enough that he never even fucking loved you in the first place? Huh? Are you so fucking desperate for fucking love that you had to fly across the fucking ocean so he could maybe fucking spit in your fucking face one more time?”

“Don’t fucking talk to me like I’m some fucking idiot,” Evgeny replies. He’s angry now, which, he knows Sasha is right, but still, he doesn’t like being told his faults. He imagines no one else does. “It’s none of your fucking business what I do or don’t do. So, leave me the fuck alone, alright?”

“It is my business. You became my business when I had to fucking watch you almost die in my fucking arms, you imbecile. You’re my fucking family, and as long as you’re my fucking family, whatever you fucking do is my fucking business.”

There’s nothing else that Evgeny can really say to that. He wants to keep being angry, wants to keep going off about how his life decisions are no one’s but his own. He wants to scream, wants to yell and ask what’s so wrong about still being in love with the first man he was ever with. Well, Evgeny knows what’s wrong about that, but he just wants someone to agree with him, he wants someone to agree that maybe still being in love with Anatoly isn’t all that wrong.

“There are things that just never change, you know?” Evgeny asks Sasha, sounding a little too sad for his liking. “I still love him, and I don’t know how I can change that.”

“Do you still love him, or are you just afraid of letting yourself be loved by someone else that you haven’t spent hundred of years with?” Sasha counters. “Change isn’t bad, you know, sometimes it’s what we need to become better people.”

“Let’s face it, no one is ever going to love me like he did.”

“You are right about that. But someone will actually love you, and he will love you the right way, the way you deserve to be loved. He will be patient with you, and treat you right. He won’t leave you when you’re having a tough time dealing with your thoughts and insecurities. That someone will make you so happy that you’ll forget you were ever sad. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.”

\/\/\/

Right before the food is served, Christian storms out of the house, leaving Andre outside by himself. Nicke sighs and goes to get him, bringing him in with a hand around his upper arm like a parent does when they’re trying to keep their child from running away. 

No one says a thing.

Jojo stays to eat dinner with them, even though he clearly doesn’t want to. He keeps asking Nicke if he can leave, but Nicke just keeps telling him that he can’t, that he should stay here and be nice because Sasha didn’t spend all this money to make dinner just so he can leave in the middle of it. It’s cute, like a little brother asking his big brother if he has permission to do something. Maybe Jojo was right, maybe he wasn’t lying when he said Nicke was a brother to him now.

After they finish eating dinner, they move to the living room; Andre sits between the arm of the couch and Jojo, Nicke sits between Sasha and Jojo on the ugly red couch, and Evgeny on the one perpendicular to it. Sasha serves them tea, and then turns the tv on.

“You know there’s never anything to watch at this time,” Nicke says, and rolls his eyes. He takes the remote from Sasha and turns the tv back off. 

“I love watching infomercials, you know that,” Sasha complains, but Evgeny knows better, they probably all do. He tries to reach for the remote, but Nicke just throws it on the empty spot next to Evgeny. “You don’t love me anymore, do you?”

“If anyone loves anyone here, it’s Nicke who loves you,” Jojo says, and he’s smiling a bit, which makes Evgeny feel a little better. Hopefully Jojo’s mood has worn off a bit, and now he’s more willing to talk than before. “Besides, Nicke is right. You shouldn’t bother with tv at this hour, everything is garbage. Actually, everything on tv, at any hour, is really bad. Why do you even bother anymore?”

Sasha lights up, like he does whenever he speaks about something he’s recently discovered, something that he loves and is obsessed with.

“I found this legal drama that is my favorite,” he says, like he’s telling a story. “It’s about this lawyer who everyone always immediately discredits because she’s this beautiful woman, and as we all know, beautiful women can’t be smart. And everyone is always after her, but she’s faithful to her wife of seven years. So romantic.”

“You’re such a sap,” Andre says, and even if Evgeny can’t really see him, he can hear him roll his eyes. 

“Please that’s nothing compared to when he first started seeing Nicke,” Evgeny says, lightly teasing. He makes a mental note to start speaking in Russian, to better impersonate Sasha and so Nicke wouldn’t know what he’s saying. “He is the most beautiful person I have ever seen, his hair, my god his hair is like strands of gold cascading from his head. He looks like an angel. My very own angel.”

Sasha’s red, Andre is laughing, and Nicke and Jojo look like they have no clue about what’s going on. 

“That’s not fair, you know,” Jojo says. He doesn’t sound mad or sad anymore, which is good. He’s got more of a mischievous look on his face. “You guys speak Russian when you know Nicke doesn’t speak it, neither do I. We can’t even speak in Swedish for confidentiality purposes because you guys know that too, you’re like a million years old.”

“I have a doctorate in language education so I can teach you Russian so you can understand us. Plus, I mean, I am a native Russian speaker, so who better to teach you than me?”

It’s the first time they’re speaking directly to each other since the hotel. Jojo looks at him, directly in the eyes, and it’s intense and full of something Evgeny’s never seen from him before. It makes Evgeny feel weird, and he really doesn’t like it. He would rather be able to joke about this with Jojo, make it sort of a more drawn out conversation, rather than a sort of beginning to an apology.

They’re silent for a while, and even in vampire terms, it feels like a fucking eternity. Finally, Jojo just looks away and sighs.

“Don’t think that will work,” he says, cold. “I’m moving back to Sweden soon anyway. Learning-”

“Wait, what? You’re doing what now?” Nicke asks, in this weird panicky voice that’s probably reserved for emergencies only. Evgeny’s never heard it before, and he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to hear it ever again, doesn’t want to see Nicke stressed. “You didn’t fucking tell me you were thinking of moving back; you tell me every fucking thing. What the hell is happening? Are your parents ok? Is Martin well?”

“They’re fine. I just think it would be best considering what my life is like now,” Jojo says, switches his attention to Evgeny for a few seconds then turns back to Nicke. 

“Sasha, get packing. We’re moving to Sweden.”

“No, no, no. I’m not asking you to move with me. I said I’m moving back, not you. I can’t ask you to abandon your life here just for me.”

“Sweden is bad for you,” Nicke says, turning to Jojo. “I know you, I know what happens when you go back there. It’s our homeland, but it is so bad for you. Don’t go back unless you have a room for me and Sasha, otherwise I don’t care if I have to keep you in here, lock you in or something, but you are not going back there.”

“I’m not going to do what you say,” Jojo says, and gets up. He looks a little angry now. “I’m not that lonely guy who’s still in love with you, that would do whatever you said anymore, ok? Leave me alone.”

Jojo storms out then, leaves them all speechless. For the confession Jojo just made to him, Evgeny expected Nicke to look a lot more shocked than he does. Instead, he looks calm, like he sort of expected an outburst like this. Maybe he already knew, maybe he just doesn’t care, but Evgeny doesn’t think the latter is very plausible. Nicke doesn’t look like the cold-hearted type to just disregard someone’s feelings like that. 

Finally, Nicke just closes his eyes and sighs.

“I’m going to go after him,” he says, then gets up. “Knowing him, he’s going to try walking all the way home, even if he doesn’t have his stuff. He’s such an idiot.”

Evgeny shakes his head. 

“He’s not mad at you, he’s mad at me. I’ll go,” Evgeny says, and gets up as well. “I need to set things straight with him, I need to apologize.”

Evgeny doesn’t wait for an answer, he just goes. At first, he can’t see Jojo, but then spots him down the street, just about to cross a busy intersection. He really is an idiot, trying to cross the intersection in the nighttime, when he probably knows that vampires being the worst drivers in the world isn’t just a stereotype, it’s a goddamn fact. 

“Why did you say that?” Evgeny asks as he approaches Jojo. He grabs Jojo’s arm and pulls him back, further into the sidewalk and away from the passing cars. They look at each other, just sort of blinking at each other, for a while. “What ever happened to never telling him? You sounded pretty sure of yourself when you said that. Seems like you weren’t so sure about that after all.”

Jojo tries to shake Evgeny off him, but Evgeny’s grip is tight on him. He’s not letting Jojo get away, not this time.

“Can you just let me fucking go?” Jojo asks, but it comes out more like he’s begging. Under any other circumstance, Evgeny would. Not today, however, absolutely not today. “Please. I don’t want to talk about it, please.”

“Too bad. Once you say something like that, you’re opening yourself up for questions. Why did you say it? What’s the point of saying it now? Hm?”

Jojo closes his eyes, and breathes in deep. 

“I don’t know, ok? I don’t know why I said that, there’s no point in it now. It’s just going to make things really awkward, and I know it. Now I really have to move to Sweden.”

“You’re so dumb if you think that someone that has known you for that long is going to let this ruin your friendship. Nicke cares about you too much to let something like that happen. You don’t really have to move back to Sweden, and you know so.”

“Yes, I do, and you know it,” Jojo says, bitter. “Nicke can’t love me like I want, obviously, I don’t expect him to. I don’t want him to. And you can’t either. You’re still hung up on somebody else and I am not willing to put myself through that; it’s disrespectful to myself.”

Sasha’s words about opening his heart come back into his thoughts. There’s no way possible he could make Anatoly put someone else through what he did to Evgeny, he’s not that cruel, not that heartless, not that selfish. Maybe in another life he could, but in this life, he just can’t bring himself to do it. It’s time to move on now, time to let the past go and leave it in history. Living in the past forever isn’t really living, it’s punishing yourself for something that wasn’t your fault.

Evgeny grabs Jojo’s other arm and pulls him closer, chest to chest. He takes one look at Jojo before he leans in and kisses him. At first, Jojo doesn’t kiss him back, stays still. Evgeny starts to pull back, but just then, Jojo grabs him by the back of the head, pushes their faces closer together. They kiss for a long time, lips moving slowly together. They’re taking their time, enjoying the feeling each other’s bodies against each other. 

It makes Evgeny feel good, makes him feel like he’s floating.

“Why’d you do that?” Jojo asks, once they’ve pulled away. 

“Because I wanted to,” Evgeny replies simply. “I know I haven’t been the best person, but I want to try. I want to try to have something, something with you. I’m tired of living in the past; I want to live in the present, with you. I want to learn about what makes you happy, what makes you sad, excited, anxious, angry, annoyed. I want to know what makes you cry. I want to learn everything about you.”

Jojo’s quiet, so Evgeny continues:

“I want to learn to love you. I know, I know if you give me the chance I can love you. For real. I can love you the way you deserve to be loved, if you just give me the chance. I can make you really fucking happy.”

Jojo closes his eyes for a while, just breathes in deep and lets it out slowly. He leans forward and presses his forehead against Evgeny’s shoulder. He stays like that for a long time, and Evgeny would think that he’s fallen asleep if he didn’t feel him blinking, and wiping at his mouth. 

Finally, he stands up straight and looks Evgeny in the eyes. 

“Ok, Kuzma, I’m going to give you a chance,” he says, reaches up and cups Evgeny’s face. “I feel like I can trust you to make me happy, but only because I’m going to make you the happiest person alive.”

“I know you will.”

**Author's Note:**

> small side note: this _is_ going to be a series bc i just couldn’t help myself and already planned everything out. oops.
> 
> u can reach me @ancientdeceiver on twitter/tumblr
> 
> thanks for reading!


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